Rampaging cow tosses officer, charges cop car in Mt. Vernon

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MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) - Police in Mount Vernon killed an agitated Angus cow that rampaged through town, tossing a police officer into the air and tap-dancing on a patrol car.

The Skagit Valley Herald reports that police spokeswoman Shannon Haigh says the cow apparently escaped from a farm outside the city limits. It was first reported in a Wal-Mart parking lot last Friday.

Haigh says the cow slipped past city police and Skagit County sheriff's deputies who tried to keep it out of the street and away from a nearby wedding.

When officers tried to catch it a few blocks away, Haigh says it charged an officer, tossing him into the air. He was sore, but not seriously hurt. The cow escaped again by jumping on the hood of a patrol car, trotting across it and running off.

Haigh says police and the cow's owner finally agreed it might need to be killed to prevent further injury or damage. An officer shot the animal.